Rakuten said it hopes to create a venue that will introduce new audiences to its services and to offer an additional marketing channel for Ichiba merchants.

Waterstones launched a tie-up with Amazon to stock ebooks and launched in-store cafes two years ago. According to Ofcom, Kindle dominates the UK e-bookmarket with 79 per cent using Kindle to download, access or sharing e-books. Kobo (WH Smith) was used by 5 per cent and Waterstones was used by 3 per cent.

Consumption of coffee in Japan has soared over the last 40 years and the average consumer now drinks around 10 cups of coffee a week.